Planning Board gives nod to TD Bank

Wednesday

Dec 5, 2012 at 12:01 AMDec 5, 2012 at 5:18 AM

The Concord Planning Board voted 5 to 2 on Tuesday night in favor of recommending to the Board of Appeals an application for a special permit, variance and site plan approval to build a TD Bank at 1112 Main St. in West Concord.

Kimberly A. Hooper

The Concord Planning Board voted 5 to 2 on Tuesday night in favor of recommending to the Board of Appeals an application for a special permit, variance and site plan approval to build a TD Bank at 1112 Main St. in West Concord.

The board spent over two hours going through a list of conditions with the developer, Arista, and heard from residents who lived near the site before taking a vote.

Five of the seven board members believed the application was now showing the bank to be an improvement over the Mobil gas station currently operating on the site.

“I believe a bank here would be less of a detrimental use than a gas station,” said Planning Board member Matthew Capofreddi.

Chairwoman Elisabeth Elden, who along with member John Canally, voted down the recommendation, believed there was a better use out there for the site.

“There’s too much being accomplished on the site,” Elden said, explaining that there was so much going on in the plan with one-way entrances and two lanes in the drive-through ATM. “Each thing here is leading to the next and you end up with something that’s not a good idea.”

Member Chris Sgarzi said while he personally would rather not see a bank at the site where many feel is the first location people notice as the enter through the “gateway” to West Concord, he said it was the Planning Board’s responsibility to determine whether the bank, in place of the gas station at the corner of Main Street and Baker Avenue would be similar, better or worse to neighbors than the existing non-conforming use.

Since the application and plan were submitted to the town June 1, applicant representatives have met with the Planning Board many times in reaction to staff comments and feedback from the board and have submitted six revised site plans with the most recent being submitted on Nov. 26, according to Planning and Land Management.

The developers ultimately agreed on Tuesday night that only the walk-up ATM at the front of the building will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Originally the applicant was looking to have the drive-through ATM located at the back of the building be open all day, every day, but that wasn’t met with enthusiasm from abutters who were concerned about lighting and noise coming from the ATM at all hours of the day.

Canally, understanding the applicant worked hard to get where it was Tuesday night, agreed with Elden who found the 24-hour walk-up ATM use to be the only thing that was making the plan more detrimental than the gas station.

“All that is great, but moving to 24 hours is a big hurdle,” he said. “I’m in favor of limiting the front walk-up ATM to bank hours.”

Members including Capofreddi and John Cratsley were comfortable with the conditions for the walk-up ATM and didn’t see any issues with it being opened all day.

Other conditions included hours of operation for the inside of the bank that will be no more than what the gas station operates at now, which is mornings until around 10 p.m.

Board members were split over whether or not they were in favor of two drive-through ATM lanes that cause the Baker Avenue side of the bank to be an exit only.

After much discussion, the board agreed to leave the ATM with two lanes and have Baker Avenue be an exit only and the Main Street side of the bank have both an entrance and exit for cars.

In an October interview, Elden said because the building shifted in the bank’s new conceptual site plan, it didn’t leave enough space for a two-lane drive-through and two-direction access point on Baker Avenue.

Elden was still concerned on Tuesday night about the possibility of cars trying to enter into the bank from Baker Avenue.

Sue Felshin of Sunnyside Lane also expressed her concerns about the exit only at Baker Avenue, adding she can already see backups happening near the site with people trying to enter and exit.

While there were people at the meeting from Concord, specifically from Concord Greene, who were in support of the bank project, none of them addressed the board during a public comment period.

With changes to lighting that reflected the concerns of people living near the site, Steve Leggat of Cottage Street, believed the bank itself was still “pushing limits” for lighting.

“Lighting is still the biggest concern,” he said. “And with the 24-hour ATM, it’s not the ATM it’s the lighting that will be on because of the ATM. Right now it’s dark at 10 p.m. If there’s an ATM, lights will be on all night long.”

Bill McCarthy, also of Cottage Street, said he didn’t want to see the gas station go.

Scott Weymouth, of Arista Development, said after the meeting that he believed all of the meetings, letters and discussion from the board and the community for the past several months has made the project better.

He said he found all conditions set by the board to be acceptable.

With the vote in favor of the bank on Tuesday, the application will be heard next by the Board of Appeals during its meeting scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 13, at 7:30 p.m. at 141 Keyes Road.